Grant Durham
Grant was born in Lubbock Texas. He did not grow up in a family with horses, but thanks to some close family friends who lived on a ranch, Grant fell in love with ranching and the cowboy way of life at an early age. He attended the United States Military Academy at West Point and served in the Army including a tour in Afghanistan as a Scout Platoon Leader. After marrying Anna, Grant made the decision to leave active duty and make Colorado Springs a permanent home. Starting with 5 acres and 1 horse, they've grown into 40 acres and 11 horses (at last count). In the military, Grant coached several Soldiers through financial matters, and upon exiting the military decided he wanted to continue that full time and became a financial advisor with LPL. 7 years into that business, he still operates that business part time, and also runs DVH full time. Grant was hired to be the Drillmaster for the Pikes Peak Rangerettes for the 2022 season.
Anna Durham
Anna was also born and raised in Lubbock, TX. The love of horses was in her blood from birth b/c her mom and her mom's mom both rode horses as young ladies. Ever since Anna was old enough to know what a horse was, she begged to ride. At 8 years old, her parents finally gave in and Anna began riding lessons. She grew up showing hunter/jumper in the local circuit and taking weekly riding lessons. Some of her fondest memories as a kid were when her family would go on weekend horse camping trips to participate in the benefit trail ride and auction for St. Jude Children's Hospital. They got to ride on beautiful historic ranches across the state of Texas such as the Glass Ranch and the Pitchfork. She also dabbled in barrel racing, team penning and dressage to try and be a well rounded horsewoman. Fast forward to college and Anna competed on the West Texas A&M Equestrian Team where she competed in both English and Western. She was offered a scholarship for her second year on the team and went on to win her team a 4th place ribbon at the National IHSA show. Anna completed her Bachelors of Equine Business and Industry from WT in 2011 with a minor in Agribusiness. Anna now runs Anna's Aussies where she raises mini and toy Australian Shepherds. Anna was hired to be the Assistant Drillmaster for the Pikes Peak Rangerettes starting in 2022.
More about DVH and our philosophy about life with horses
DVH started out of a realization that the common way people handle horses is not especially productive, safe or well, fun. We believe that there is a better way. By applying some basic principles and logic, we have seen some incredible results ranging from our own horses, to those of student's horses and horses we've been hired to train. In 2015, even before purchasing his first horse, Grant spent countless hours watching horse training videos online, learning from his wife, cowboys and reading books. He then put all this knowledge into practice rehabilitating a rescue horse and then training an ex-ranch horse to show in Ranch Versatility. Finally, Grant tackled his life-long dream of starting his own colt. Anna bought Captain for Grant as a yearling from RS Quarter Horses and he was started and trained almost exclusively by Grant. Now, as a 4 year old, Captain performs as a Rangerette horse for rodeos and has shown in Ranch Versatility, Western Pleasure, Hunter Under Saddle and Hunt Seat Equitation in local shows. Grant's second youngster to start, a filly named Vandi, is almost ready for her first Reined Cowhorse show. Grant has several other colts in training as well as training horses for the public and teaching lessons on a regular basis.
DVH's philosophy on horsemanship has been influenced more by Warwick Schiller than any other source of information. His principles, along with techniques learned from time spent with working cowboys and lessons taken from top notch trainers form the basis for the horsemanship that Grant and Anna practice and teach. Of course, we're still learning everyday and no one has a monopoly on horse knowledge, but we would love to share with you what we've learned about handling horses!